A small but staunch group gathered at Main Beach Byron on Saturday to put their voices behind a call for a ceasefire in Palestine and an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
Organiser Indigo Grey, who is a year 10 student at Xavier Catholic College, said she felt it is important to be speaking out about this issue.
‘Australia is a wealthy country. You know, we have so many privileges that the people in Palestine don’t have.
‘I think it’s important that we raise our voices on this issue, that we speak out and fight back against what mainstream media is trying to tell us. The narrative that I think a lot of these governments are pushing, especially America, is just completely erasing the struggle and the suffering of the Palestinian people. It’s just glossing over everything, all of the injustices.
Raising our voices
‘I just think it’s crucial that we be raising our voices and telling our government that we do not support the genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Greens MLC, Sue Higginson, who spoke at the rally, said it was good to see a rally organised by Indigo. ‘She’s a young person who is so concerned about what’s happening in the Middle East right now, and we’re seeing so much pain and trauma, and let’s be honest, we’re seeing a lot of anger about the conflict. We’re seeing anger at our own governments, both state and federal, for not standing up for peace, for not calling for a strong position on the ceasefire and the end of the violence’.
Israel is not defending itself
‘We saw early those calls for Israel’s right to defend itself, and we know what that means. Israel right now is not defending itself. It is a full-scale attack on Gaza. And that is an attack on Palestinian people right now, with over 15,000 Palestinian people are now dead – women and children – because of this bloody attack.
‘This war and this conflict, it has been going on for as long as my life. This is an escalation of illegal occupation, violence, and we know that we’re talking genocide. It’s hard to talk about, it’s tough. But we have to be honest.’
The future is bleak
Indigo Grey said right now the future for Palestine is bleak. ‘If Israel continues its illegal invasion, there will soon be no Palestine. Many of the thousands who have died were crafters, artists storytellers. Who will pass on the rich culture of the Palestinian people to the next generation.
‘We must have a ceasefire and we must have it now’.
A small group gathered at Main beach, but seemingly ignorant of important matters. The two female spokespeople quoted said nothing about the brutal mass rape, murder and hostage taking carried out against peaceful Israeli women and children by Palestinian Hamas terrorists.
Of course not!
There will be a ceasefire when Hamas surrenders. Simple as that. Every death is the direct fault of Hamas.
Remind me, which was the side that broke the ceasefire?
There was a ceasefire on October 6. Hamas decided it wanted war, and it got it. It wants its civilians killed while it hides behind them, because that is the best way of persuading the uninformed to support their genocidal cause.
Truth is the first casualty in war and people should be aware that propaganda is powerful weapon often used with great skill to justify violence and war. Diagrams were used in Iraq and also here to justify a war and the brutal killing of innocent people. This is simply another example of how violence and war does not resolve issues, it just causes more pain and suffering. It may just push the problem underground to become exposed another time and maybe by another generation. Hamas has grown as a violent armed resistance movement against an illegal occupying force that has treated and continues to treat the Palestinians as sub human. The attacks didn’t grow out of a vacuum. This Oct 7 attack and others by the IDF have continued over the last 70 years and have been brutal and dehumanising from both sides. My prayer is that rather than pointing fingers and getting caught up in the endless round of blame revenge and violence let use this passion to search for and find solutions where both sides can live in peace. There needs to be a immediate and permanent cease fire then create a 2 state solution where Palestinians can live free with dignity on their own land.
I don’t even bother pointing to the evidence that a lot of what was said day one was propaganda, or how most of those Israelis actually died, or the things the released hostages are actually saying, as such information is not allowed on this platform. People would be surprised simply by knowing where those tunnels under the hospitals actually came from.
Unfortunately a ceasefire is unlikely to lead to peace. A more humanitarian response from Israel is needed, while they continue the war with Hamas, and globally a more nuanced response is needed for the support of both the Palestinian and Israeli’s that want peace. Hamas has been a significant reason why the two state solution has not come about, because Hamas opposes a two state solution. Hamas wants to occupy Israel and turn it into a Palestinian state under Hamas’s control – thats what a majority of Gazans voted for. Hamas’s original intention was to rule all of the region of Palestine, which covers part of all surrounding Arab countries, but after the Arab countries put pressure on Hamas, in 1985 Hamas changed its position to just taking over all the land up to the existing Israeli borders (Israel is now, with the West Bank, aprox 200km x 400km, prior to the west bank it was about 60 km wide at its narrowest). Israel is the Jews homeland established 3,500 years ago, has had a permanent present of Jews, and contains the Jews formative cultural history, and is precious to Jews as Meccha is to Muslims. The biggest disagreement left to form a two state solution is who will be in control of Jerusalem. There has been agreement on the unauthorised Jewish settlements – some would be in the Israeli area, others would be removed ( as the 6000 Jews Israel removed from Gaza) and that there would be Palestinians staying in Israel but given Palestinian citizenship/passports, and Jews staying in Pallestine but retaining Israeli citizenship – a bit like the arrangement we have with New Zealand. Australia is an Illegal occupying force, Israel isn’t – modern Israel is the reestablishment of the original Israel after occupations by others including Muslims, which was put in place after the last occupiers ( the British) left. Gaza was taken in war from Egypt, and the West Bank taken from Jordan ( and when these two areas were under the control of Egypt and Jordan, there was no violent Palestinian action over their ‘occupation’ – note the UN declarations of ‘illegal occupation’ are from an organisation where Iran is the Chair of the UN Human Rights Council). Peace will only come when the Hamas’ Islamic Jihad philosophy of destroying Israel is replaced by the Palestinians, and Israelis vote out the present right wing militaristic govt. Islam needs a new ‘Arab Spring’ – on the 400km Israeli border, Lebanon had a Muslim /Christian civil war, is now sectors of Christians and Muslims, with a Muslim army bigger than the Lebanese army on its border, presently shooting missiles at Israel, but will just as likely to turn them around and bomb Lebanese Christians, Syria – civil war with 6 – 800,000 dead, Egypt – Arab Spring taken over by the radical Muslim Brotherhood, and then by a military govt, Saudi Arabia kills outspoken opponents, and the regional Hutis of Yemen (dropping a few missiles on Israel) in a civil war where Sunni Countries are lined up against Shia countries, and as militant Islam spreads down into Africa. And you cant have Salmon Rushdie at the Byron Writers Festival, or do a Monty Python Life of Byron on Islam, or publish a Charlie Hebdo critique or publicly state that Australian Muslims should reject and not follow the Korans directive to kill gays (do i get on a murder list for even saying that?), the perception of ‘insulting’ Islam is a potential problem here – all of the surrounding countries to Israel had pre Islamic cultures, but most have not survived. Mohammad stated he died from poisoning by a slave – the slave was a girl his men captured after they slaughtered all the men and old women in her village, and took the younger women to be sold in the market, and that is significantly how Islam was spread, and that is the same philosophy still held by fundamentalists in the region, and around the world. There is no separation of State and Religion in fundamentalist Islam.
It must be bliss being a propaganda sponge, soaking up the lies of a tyrannical state run by psychopaths, that encourages the open theft of land by violent settlers, backed by sadistic IDF maniacs. Twitter is rampant with Atrocities day after day perpetrated by lunatics. The bombing of hospitals, schools, refugee camps, the killing of journalists, the starving of two million people, who have no water, no electricity or medicines.